News

At Least Four Dead in South From Winter Storm Grayson

January 04 2018 06:15 PM EDT

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At a Glance

A man died in South Carolina after his truck slid off an icy interstate.

Two people were killed when their vehicle slid off a road in North Carolina.

Another person died in North Carolina overnight after his car slid off a snowy road and overturned.

States of emergency have been declared in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

A stretch of Interstate 10 was closed east of Tallahassee because of icy conditions.

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At least four people are dead after Winter Storm Grayson brought snow, ice and powerful winds to the South.

South Carolina authorities said Arthur Cumbie Jr. was killed Thursday while driving his pickup truck home from work, the Associated Press reports. The vehicle slid off of icy Interstate 20 and collided with trees. Kershaw County coroner David West said Cumbie was driving at or below the speed limit at the time of the incident. He was also wearing a seatbelt but died from head injuries.

Joshua Wayne Biddle, 29, of Washington, North Carolina, died early Thursday after his vehicle slid off the road and overturned in snowy conditions, according to AP. State Emergency Management spokesman Keith Acree said Biddle died in Beaufort County around 2 a.m. Thursday.

Two people were killed when their vehicle slid off a road, crashed through a bridge guardrail and landed in a creek in Moore County, North Carolina. WNCN reports that the two victims Michael Alexander Wilson, 57, and Jerry David Wilson, 73, both died at the scene of the crash.

Grayson brought rare snow to north Florida, the first measurable snow since 1989 in Tallahassee, and coastal Georgia Wednesday before raking the coast of North Carolina and Virginia overnight. As the storm rapidly intensified, known as bombogenesis, wind gusts greater than 70 MPH hit the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

On Wednesday ice and snow contributed to nearly 100,000 homes and businesses losing power in north Florida and south Georgia combined, according to PowerOutage.us. As of Thursday morning more than 35,000 homes and businesses were without power from Florida to Virginia, most of which were still in Florida and Georgia.

Florida

An 80-mile stretch of Interstate 10 from Tallahassee eastward to Live Oak was closed Wednesday morning as slick conditions made travel on the roadway very risky, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. The closure affected exits 203 to 283. The Interstate has since reopened.

The National Weather Service's Tallahassee office confirmed that 0.1 inches of snow fell Wednesday morning in the downtown area of the state capital – the city's first measurable snow since 1989.

South Carolina

North of Charleston, two firefighters were injured in the town of Hanahan Wednesday morning while they responded to a weather-related crash, according to WTAT-TV. As they responded to the crash, the firefighters were struck by another responding fire truck arriving at the scene, the report added.

WTAT said the firefighters were hospitalized, as were those involved in the previous accident, but the severity of those injuries was not known.

In a news conference held Wednesday, Gov. Henry McMaster urged residents to stay indoors and off of roads for their safety and the safety of emergency responders.

The wintry conditions also caused problems for air travel. According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, more than 75 flights into and out of Charleston International Airport were canceled Wednesday morning.

Later in the morning, Charleston's airport shut down all runways because of the conditions.

A woman passes an ice-covered fountain in New York's Bryant Park, Friday, Jan. 5, 2018. Frigid temperatures, some that could feel as cold as minus 30 degrees, moved across the East Coast on Friday as the region attempted to clean up from Winter Storm Grayson. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

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